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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22987858">Land vs. Sky</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel_Bazethiel/pseuds/Angel_Bazethiel'>Angel_Bazethiel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, Gen, Hazel is a secret little shit, Leo and Piper are little shits, Save Jason 2020, Volleyball AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:00:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,615</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22987858</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel_Bazethiel/pseuds/Angel_Bazethiel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The volleyball teams of Jupiter Academy and Half-Blood High are archnemeses of each other (at least, that's what they say). A new school year comes new members. See how Jupiter Academy's captain meets his new teammates and Half-Blood High's new libero.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo/Jason Grace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>108</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Land vs. Sky</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This happened bc I fell down the Haikyuu!! rabbit hole. <strike>save me.</strike> The Karasuno vs. Shiratorizawa match was giving such a CHB vs. CJ vibe. And yes, the title comes from the most recent OVA..</p><p>Set in a world with no hate and sports teams are a mix of everyone that wants to play. Just go with it. I just want my children to be happy and to play volleyball.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“H-he’s flying!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“His form must be so perfect that he’s able to float mid-air for a few seconds.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I feel like my arms would fall off if I’d receive his spikes! </em>
</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>When you look at Jason Grace, a straight-A third-year high school student and vice-president of the student body organization, you would have thought he’s also the captain of the football team to complete the golden boy setup.</p><p>Well, he <em>is </em>a captain. Just of the <em>volleyball</em> team.</p><p>The Jupiter Eagles wasn’t a powerhouse team from before his time. Jupiter Academy’s focus was on the basketball and football teams. Everyone, including Jason’s parents, thought that he’s wasting his athleticism in a team bound to lose.</p><p>No one has bet on them going to the Spring High Nationals in his first year.</p><p>They lose to the Half-Blood High Volleyball Team, but they’re on the country’s top 8. And no one has called them weak since.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>The next year they beat the Crows. And they become part of the top 4.</p><p>Jason has never been so alive.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>In his third year, he’s elected captain and almost half of the team either have graduated or are retired for the season to focus on their academics.</p><p>“Great,” Jason says to his team after practice. They were extremely short on players and the State Games preliminaries are in less than three months. “What am I going to do?”</p><p>His vice-captain, Reyna, squeezes his shoulders. “We’ll make do with what we have.”</p><p>And Leo punches his shoulders, “We can make it to the top again!”</p><p>Jason rubs the hit body part. “Is there any chance you’d want to be our libero?”</p><p>“Uh, no way dude. I want to slam balls!”</p><p>“Of course, you do.” Jason rolls his eyes. With a smirk, he continues, “And because of that, you’re in charge of finding a new one.”</p><p>“What? Why?” Leo screams.</p><p>“Because I said so.”</p><p>“Is this the start of the Jason Grace dictatorship? Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!” And he starts to jump at every word.</p><p>Piper pulls the back of his shirt down and keeps a hand on his shoulder. “Quiet, you.” And then she addresses the rest of them. “I’m sure there would be first years that’s interested in joining.”</p><p>“I hope so.” Jason sighs and dismisses the team.</p><p> </p><p>The next day, a short, curly-haired girl comes to the gym.</p><p>“Uhm, is this where the volleyball tryouts are?” she says.</p><p>Leo immediately beams and shouts, “Why yes! Welcome! Welcome!”</p><p>Before he comes too close, Piper grabs his arm with a threatening, passive-aggressive smile on her face. “Don’t scare her, idiot.”</p><p>She turns to the girl and her face softens, “Hello! My name’s Piper. I’m the official setter of the team.”</p><p>The girl’s face lights up. “I’m Hazel! A-and I played as a setter too during my middle school. But I’m good at receiving too.” She adds that last part quietly.</p><p>“How good?” Jason approaches them. “Because right now we’re desperate for a libero.”</p><p>“O-oh!” Hazel rubs the back of her neck. “I’m not sure if I’m good enough to be a libero.”</p><p>Reyna appears on Jason’s side. “Maybe not right now, but you most certainly can be. If you want to, that is?”</p><p>“Of course I do!” Hazel bows deeply, “Thank you for having me.”</p><p>Piper pats her head, “Hey none of that. We’re glad to have you on the team.”</p><p>“And don’t worry,” Reyna adds. “You’ll get to play as a setter too.” She turns to Jason, “A former-setter libero is perfect for that attack I was telling you about.”</p><p>“Oh yeah,” Jason remembers. Maybe they won’t be so bad after all. He smiles at Hazel and offers his hand, “Welcome to the team.”</p><p> </p><p>After a few days, she comes to practice lugging a tall and huge boy. He’s as tall as Jason and even bigger than him.</p><p>“Hey, guys,” she says. “This is Frank. He’s from my geography and math classes and he said he wants to join a club, so I said he can join ours!”</p><p>“Uhm,” Frank scratches his face. “I have no volleyball experience though.”</p><p>“That’s okay!” Hazel insists. “I had no libero experience at all and they still accepted me.”</p><p>“Yeah, but you still used to play,” Frank points out, rubbing the back of his neck.</p><p>Everyone gathers around them. Leo approaches and looks up at him. “Woah,” he says. “You sure are big!”</p><p>“Er, thanks?”</p><p>Leo then pokes the clearly uncomfortable boy. “Do you work out, bro?”</p><p>“Er, sometimes? I used to play football in middle school.”</p><p>“Why didn’t you join the football team, then?” Piper asks.</p><p>“Well… I—” he looks at Hazel and pink creeps up his neck, “—don’t know really. I guess I don’t vibe with them at all. And with team sports, that’s important, right?”</p><p>“And you sure as hell <em>vibe</em> with Hazel, don’t you?” Leo wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, making the poor boy blush even harder.</p><p>Piper smacks Leo on the head, “Stop tormenting the children.” To Frank, “You’re welcome to join if you feel more comfortable with us.”</p><p>“And we do need a new middle blocker,” Jason adds, “Especially when the only one we have is Leo.”</p><p>“Hey!” Leo squawks.</p><p>It is Frank’s turn to look at Leo. He considers said middle blocker and their height difference.</p><p>“Hey!” Leo says more firmly. “Don’t get fooled by my height. I can probably reach higher than you can!”</p><p>Frank backtracks, “I-I didn’t mean to offend!”</p><p>“Nah, man,” the shorter boy waves him off and gives him a mischievous smile. “Just messing with you.”</p><p>Jason cuts in, “So do you want to join?”</p><p>Frank looks at Hazel, who has a hopeful smile and at Leo, who has both his thumbs up. “Yeah.”</p><p>The captain nods and calls for Dakota. “There’s still no set formation, but most likely he’d be your left during matches.”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>The next few weeks are a blur. They train hard, Frank and Hazel, especially so. They don’t connect right away, but over time they do.</p><p>It’s less than two weeks before the State Games preliminaries when Coach Lupa tells them they’re having a practice match against Half-Blood High.</p><p>“Alright!” Leo exclaims, jumping almost two feet in the air. Everyone else gets fired up except the first years who are confused with all the hype.</p><p>“They’re our archenemies,” Piper explains and the two first years share a look and barely contained smiles.</p><p>“We’re serious!” Dakota continues, “They may not be the best team there is – because, of course, that’s us – but they’re a formidable foe. They’re the Greeks to our Romans; the villainous crows to our majestic eagles.”</p><p>“Very dramatic.” Hazel now has a full grin and Frank chuckles.</p><p>“What they say is true,” Reyna adds, which is a surprise. The vice-captain doesn’t usually go along the team’s ridiculous antics. “Whenever we go to a national tournament, they’d be there and it either goes in two ways: they win or we win. This year, we will crush them at every tournament we face them.”</p><p>She says this in a deadpan voice and fire in her eyes that Jason can’t help but laugh. “That we will. And to do that we have to be in our very best shape. So back to practice!”</p><p>The team huddles and then they break off to smaller groups. Frank practices receiving with Piper and Dakota, while Hazel practices jumping from the back and tossing mid-air with Leo spiking her tosses. The others join the three-versus-three game started by Leila and Mike.</p><p>Reyna stays by Jason’s side long enough for the captain to smile at his vice and tell her, “We have a good bunch this year.”</p><p>She hums and goes to the side where Hazel and Leo are.</p><p>Jason can’t wait to face the Crows again.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“D-did you see that?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“He went from one side of the court to the other!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“He received Grace’s spike head-on!”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>The strongest weapon Jason has is his left-handedness. His spikes are already strong, but with his left-handedness, its spin and course often take their opponents by surprise. Not many people can receive his spikes cleanly.</p><p><em>Of course</em>, the Crows found someone who’s able to do so.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>The Half-Blood High Volleyball Team arrives at their school ten days before the preliminaries.</p><p>“Still have the same tacky eye-soar you call uniforms, I see,” Jason says as he shakes the hand of Percy Jackson, the team’s ace.</p><p>“You’re the one to talk.”</p><p>“Hey, purple is miles better than neon orange.”  </p><p>Their captain, Annabeth Chase, stands at Percy’s side. “Already antagonizing our gracious host, Seaweed Brain?”</p><p>“Of course not, <em>Captain</em>.”</p><p>Jason turns to her and offers his hand, “Congrats on the captaincy.”</p><p>“Same to you. I’m looking forward to our game.”</p><p>She ushers Percy back to their group and Jason does the same for his teammates to leave the rival team to settle in.</p><p>Jason supposes that their uniforms are not as bad as he made them to be as he observes the newly arrived (but orange with black accents really is worse than their violet with yellow accents).</p><p>“They brought a water boy?” Jason hears Leo whisper to Piper. The captain follows their line of sight and finds a short boy – even shorter than <em>Leo</em> – wearing black tracksuit pants and a zipped-up aviator jacket.</p><p>“I don’t think he’s just a water boy,” Piper whispers back.</p><p>As if sensing the attention, the boy looks over them. Jason hears Leo’s breath hitch before probably looking away, but the captain holds the boy’s gaze. He has the darkest eyes Jason has ever seen and wavy hair that drops to his shoulders.</p><p>Annabeth shouts at her team to warm up and the boy looks away. He takes off his pants and jacket, revealing a uniform with inverted colors as the rest of the Crows, all black with orange accents. He’s their new libero, then.</p><p>The boy ties his hair into a bun and starts to stretch. And, <em>oh</em>, for a short guy, the boy has nice long legs. Jason sharply turns his head away from the group, feeling a bit like a creep. He tells himself to focus and faces his own team with heated cheeks.</p><p>Piper and Leo have twin smirks that only bodes bad tidings.</p><p>“What’s got you flustered, Captain?” Piper asks, feigning innocence.</p><p>“Perhaps a certain enemy libero?” Leo adds.</p><p>Jason scoffs. “After this, you two will be receiving a hundred serves.”</p><p>“Aw,” Dakota slips by his side and punches his shoulder. “Don’t be like that, Captain. Love is love, even if they’re the enemy.”</p><p>“Who’s in love?” Reyna pipes in, with the two first years in tow.</p><p>“Superman here has finally found his Lois Lane,” Leo answers, Jason’s <em>No one</em> is barely heard.</p><p>“Yeah, Captain has the hots for the Crow’s new libero.”</p><p>Hazel sputters and fans herself. “R-really?” That raised a few eyebrows.  “I mean! It’s not like there’s something wrong about that or anything.”</p><p><em>Great</em>. Now they made her uncomfortable.</p><p>Jason sighs and claps once to get everyone’s attention. “Why don’t we get warmed up, too? The Crows have come a long way for a match. Let’s focus on that, shall we?”</p><p>Shouts of <em>Yes, Captain!</em> come from his team and that’s that.</p><p>Jason sneaks a glance over the opposing team once more and sees the boy looking at him. The captain gives a small smile and a wave and the libero ducks his head too soon.</p><p>But not before Jason sees some pink staining the boy’s cheeks.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Jason knows that the Crows isn’t a weak team.</p><p>The team captain and setter is very smart and can bring everyone on her team to their full potential. She and the ace has complete trust in each other and can do miraculous plays.</p><p>The middle blockers, Beckendorf and La Rue, are intimidating and they make spikers second guess themselves. The other wing spikers, Underwood and Solace, aren’t to be taken lightly as well; the former known for his reliability and the latter for his insane control of the ball.</p><p>And then there’s the new libero.</p><p>For Jason’s first few spikes, no one has received them properly as expected. Of course, Jason isn’t naïve to think that no one will get used to his spikes. However, that usually happens until it’s too late for their opponent. The second set, <em>at least</em>.</p><p>This boy only needed <em>three chances</em> and he’s already getting the ball up from his spikes.</p><p>Jason would admit that he’s impressed if he weren’t getting frustrated.</p><p>It isn’t just that. The libero is fast and has a good reaction time. He can go from one end of the court to the other in a blink of an eye. It’s as if he travels by shadows.</p><p>And, yeah. Alright<em>. Fine.</em> Jason is attracted as hell.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>They win the first match with a full set. Then they lose the second one, also with a full set. Leo shouts that he wants another go and is seconded by La Rue. Jason looks at Annabeth and comes to an agreement.</p><p>“Everyone’s tired, Leo,” Jason tells his middle blocker.</p><p>“And it’s getting late,” Annabeth tells hers.</p><p> </p><p>They shake hands and the two coaches give a few words to the players. Then they start to clean up, the two teams intermingling.</p><p>“So,” Percy approaches Jason as he was taking down the net, “A little fishy told me you’re crushing on Nico.”</p><p>Jason fumbles with the net and almost falls from the small stool he’s on. <em>Goddamnit, Leo</em>. “You know, Leo says a lot of things that aren’t true.”</p><p>“Ah no, I heard it from Hazel.”</p><p>Jason cocks an eyebrow. Out of everyone from his team, he expects Hazel to be Percy’s ‘informant’ the least.</p><p>Percy shrugs, “It isn’t every day that you learn your awe-inspiring captain was star-struck by your brother. So, of course, she teased him about it.”</p><p>“<em>What?</em>”</p><p>“Yeah. Haze may seem so innocent and lovely, but Nico says she’s actually the devil.” The other ace laughs.</p><p>“He’s her brother?”</p><p>Percy stops laughing and he stares at Jason for a solid five seconds before doubling over again in laughter.</p><p>“O-o-oh my God,” Percy says in between laughs, “You didn’t know? Man, that’s why you were so unashamed with your ogling because you didn’t know you were doing it <em>in front of his sister</em>!”</p><p>“I wasn’t ogling,” Jason says in a small voice.</p><p>“Not according to Hazel.”</p><p>The captain groans, “Did she say that I was to him?”</p><p>Percy takes pity on him and sobers up. “Not in so many words.”</p><p>“Oh god.”</p><p>“Hey, all is not yet lost, Romeo. Let me be your Friar Laurence and properly introduce you.” Yeah right. Percy is the <em>worst wingman</em> in history. Jason knows this after the <em>Ice Pop Debacle </em>during the last training camp. “Although I have to say that the Capulets are very protective of our Baby Crow. Especially Will.”</p><p>“I never thought I’d see the day you’re making Shakespeare references.”</p><p>“Yeah, well I’m also at high school and we have a literature class and my girlfriend is the best tutor in the world.”</p><p>“You and Annabeth, huh? When did that finally happen?”</p><p>“Just over the summer, but don’t change the subject. Do you want to meet your Juliet?” He gestures over where said libero is talking to Solace. The boy sneezes and Solace produces a tissue seemingly out of nowhere. Nico rolls his eyes but takes the tissue with a small – <em>and very cute</em>, his traitorous mind supplies – smile.</p><p>Jason turns to Percy.</p><p>“Yes, please.”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“Grace’s spikes are as powerful as ever!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“But no matter how fast the ball goes, di Angelo still manages to catch it!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah! It’s like lightning striking the earth. It’s so amazing!”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I was gonna have the Asgardian (<i>Valhalla Institute</i>; mascot: Ravens) and Egyptian (<i>Brooklyn School of Science and Technology</i>; mascot: falcons) peeps part of this but... eh. HAHA. If it wasn't clear what their positions are, then here you go: [<span class="u">L</span>ibero, <span class="u">R/L</span> <span class="u">W</span>ing <span class="u">S</span>piker, <span class="u">S</span>etter, <span class="u">M</span>. <span class="u">B</span>locker]</p><p>Eagles: Hazel (L), Dakota (LWS), Frank (MB), Jason (RWS; bc he's left-handed so he attacks from right), Piper (S), Leo (MB), Reyna (LWS)</p><p>Crows: Nico (L), Percy (LWS), Charles (MB), Grover (RWS), Annabeth (S), Clarisse (MB), Will (LWS).</p><p> Edit: Also, <a href="https://ohsehuns.tumblr.com/post/159028700744/karasuno-and-their-new-color-swapped-uniforms"> here </a> is a post of color-swapped Karasuno uniforms to get a sense of what the CHB uniforms look like.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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